Bamboo Furnishings


Why would you want to make, or own, bamboo furnishings?

It seems like “green” is the word of the day - quite possibly to the point of becoming a cliche. We pretty much all care about our environment, don’t we? But we don’t want to live in the Stone Age.

What we need, then, are smarter ways of living. The idea is to minimize impact without sacrificing quality of life.

Bamboo is one facet of that puzzle. It’s a grass, not a tree, and grows very quickly. Granted we don’t want a world with no trees and lots of bamboo, which is why moderation is, as always, key.

Bamboo can be made into anything, include bamboo furnishings, bamboo flooring, and other bamboo decorations. It can be treated in such a way that it behaves just like hardwood, or it can be used as individual poles bound together (think “tropical island castaway”).

If you want to make your own bamboo furnishings, the How to Build with Bamboo guide is a great way to get started. It covers more advanced projects, too.

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Bamboo Shortage


Evidently, China believes they’ll run out of bamboo within 5 years.  Given bamboo’s high growth rate and short time to maturation, this is hard to imagine.  It can only underscore the sharp rise in bamboo demand over the last few years.

As a result, there’s now some internal pressure in other Asian nations to grow more bamboo to fill the demand, which could result in some interesting economic shifts.  Bamboo is easy enough to grow, and an increase in demand would mean bamboo would become more profitable.  Let’s just hope our bamboo furnishings don’t get more expensive!

Here’s one article talking about pressure to grow bamboo in the Phillipines.

Natural Home Decorating & Design Tips: Free Online Guide to Green Living : Bamboo, Cork & Clay Tile Flooring: Free Online Guide to Natural Home Decorating


Nice summary on how to use bamboo (and other green materials).  A touch on the “environmental” side for my tastes, but good nevertheless.

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Can you paint bamboo furniture?


Here’s a popular question: can you paint bamboo furnishings?

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Bamboo: Is it bad to grow?


We can’t have bamboo furniture without, of course, someone growing bamboo.

It seems that homeowners everywhere are living in fear of bamboo.  Evidently, this little plant has a habit of overrunning large areas and basically driving out all competing plants.  Since it’s grass (you’ve figured that out by now, I hope), it grows from the bottom up.  That means trying to rip it out of the ground is often an excercise in futility, as more will just shoot up somewhere else.

So long as the bamboo doesn’t overrun the planet, this seems like a good thing.   If it’s easier to grow that means it’s available in larger quantities and is therefore cheaper.  Imagine if someone tried to corner the bamboo market - someone somewhere would just grow it in her backyard and sell it cheaer.  And cheaper bamboo = cheaper bamboo furnishings.

If you plan for it, though, it’s not such a problem.  Trench around the area you want to plant the bamboo (up to a few feet) and put a barrier in to keep it from growing out too far.  Or just actively maintain it.  Read about one person’s experiences here.

 

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Bamboo Furniture Post Review


This week in review:

We’ve found some great blog posts on Bamboo Furniture you may want to take a look at:

  • Choosing Your Bamboo Furniture - They are pioneers in creating exquisite bamboo furniture from the same not only for private homes but also for commercial purposes. Now who can resist that! All of us have a tendency of changing furniture once every 5 years at least, …

  • Bamboo shades - a cost effective solution - About the Author:. Did you like the article on bamboo furniture??, Adam Peters is a journalist who writes newsletters for http://www.home-decorating-reviews.com . A website with tips on cutting bamboo shades and bamboo shades.

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The Color of Bamboo Furniture


You’ve seen natural bamboo and it sure isn’t brown, so you may be wondering how we can have bamboo furniture that looks like wood?  You might think it’s stained, but wood-colored bamboo furnishings have been around for a very long time. 

The answer is heat.

To darken bamboo, the artisans bake it.  That makes the natural sugars in the bamboo carmelize, turning it a rich brown color.  If you’ve ever cooked sugar on your stove, you’ll know what I mean.

Whoever thought of that simple idea was a genius, and that simple, non-toxic color change helps to lend bamboo it’s excellent color palette, making it a suitable match for any number of decors.

A Bamboo Furniture Shop in Mexico


 

A brief, but interesting, video of a cooperative in Mexico that creates bamboo furnishings.  Notice the part where Pablo claims he can do anything with bamboo that he could do with wood.  Very cool.

Bamboo Furnishings: 6 Things to Consider Before Buying


If you’re ready to shop for bamboo furnishings there are some important things you need to know before you begin. Just follow these five tips for get started with your new bamboo furnishing decor.

1. A important factor when you start to shop for bamboo furnishings is making sure that you get products made from sustainable bamboo. That is, bamboo that is harvested in a way that doesn’t destroy it or the surrounding environment.  The reason why this is important is because some corporations are using harsh fertilzers, over-harvesting, and even clear-cutting to grow more bamboo. If you don’t look for sustainable bamboo, then you run the risk of contibuting to the very problems you’re trying to prevent.

2. Another important consideration for your bamboo furniture purchase is to watch out for imitators. It’s critical that you look for real bamboo furniture because, as bamboo’s popularity grows, the number of cheap knock-offs increases as well. If you make sure that your furniture is made from real bamboo, and not just cheap wood made to look like bamboo, then you’ll be fine.

3. You don’t have to buy a solid bamboo piece in order to bring bamboo decor into your environment. All you need to do is look for a suitable piece with a bamboo veneer, and make sure that you verify the substrate, and the adhesive used to attach the bamboo to it, is environmentally friendly.

4. Instead of complicating your bamboo furnishing efforts by looking through the showrooms of the major furniture chains, try it this way: look for imported hand-crafted pieces. In fact, if you look for the products of artisans from more rustic villages, then you will find that you can benefit from their experience in creating these pieces.  Remember that many smaller villages have been creating bamboo furnishings for centuries.  That skill brings great value.

5. Have you considered making your own bamboo furnishings?  It’s not as difficult as you might think.  What you need to do is experiment, experiment, and experiment some more.  There are as many ways to work bamboo as there are people doing it.

6. Don’t let your hard work go to waste! Look out for emissions from other finishes or chemicals.  Staining your bamboo with a chemical that emits a harsh vapor won’t do your indoor environment any favors.

So if you really want to add some bamboo furnishings to your home or office, follow these tips to get the best value from your purchases.

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Bamboo Accessories… From Ethiopia


A bamboo processing plant in Ethiopia is looking to export more chopsticks, of all things. Besides some other hard woods, they’ll be replanting and harvesting existing bamboo, which is definitely a good thing.

With 800,000 or more hectares of bamboo in Ethiopia, bamboo furnishings and furniture may become a significant export for the nation.

The full story, and a nice rundown of some other uses for bamboo, here.

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